The hose reel is a very useful tool when one needs to operate with very long flexible hoses, and comprises a drum rotatably coupled to a casing.
Hose reels are known in which, in order to facilitate the winding of the hose, the drum/casing coupling is made through elastic means which force the rotation of the drum in the direction usable for rewinding a partially or totally unrolled hose.
Said known hose reels have the disadvantage that, once the operator has started the winding process, the drum tends to accelerate, making the manual stopping of the hose by the operator difficult and often forcing the end of the hose, usually fitted with a terminal lance, to finish its run violently against the casing, with the consequent possibility of damage to both.
Hose reels are known including a device to slow the hose down, which reduces the speed of winding but does not solve the problem in the case of total rewinding of the hose. In this case also it is necessary to go back to the casing and recover the hose.
Hose reels are also known having a hook fixed to the casing which can engage with teeth located on half the face of the drum. The interaction between hook and teeth locks the drum. The braking/locking action is performed solely by half the face of the drum, and for this reason the stopping is not certain and depends on the angle of rotation of the drum with respect to the position of the hook.
If the hose has unrolled almost completely, and one decides to roll it up completely, the drum picks up such a speed that the end of the hose stops suddenly when it re-enters the casing. The problems of wear and tear mentioned above present themselves once more.